Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Trevor Peterson <06PETERSON AT cua.edu>]

>===== Original Message From Søren Holst <sh AT teol.ku.dk> =====
>Shalom, everybody
>
>In some editions of the HB, the last word of the first commandment, in Ex
20,3 as well as Deut 5,7, has what seems to me to be an "extra", unexpected,
patach under the final yod: It says "you shall have no other gods 'al-panaya"
(ending in -qamats-yod-patach), rather than the expected al-panay (with
-patach-yod -- some 9 cases in evidence -- OR in pause with -qamats-yod as in
Dan 8,18).
>
Just a quick reaction without looking at the text in question (currently away
from my resources)--this is probably due to the double accenting of the ten
commandments, which Dotan I believe separates out and puts one in an appendix
of some sort. Your reference to the two expected forms would fit with this,
since it seems like they're probably trying to squeeze in both options,
depending on how the word is accented. As such, you would probably pronounce
one or the other, not both.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics